


With a Little Help From My Honeybear

by RoseRose



Category: Iron Man (Comics), Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Brotherly Affection, Brotp, Gen, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark at MIT, MIT Era, Marvel Bingo 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-17
Updated: 2019-05-17
Packaged: 2020-03-06 17:59:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18856165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoseRose/pseuds/RoseRose
Summary: Tony wants to do another PhD. Howard says no, so he has to figure out how to fund it on his own. James Rhodes watches and supervises.





	With a Little Help From My Honeybear

**Author's Note:**

> A big thanks to my beta, Faustess.
> 
> This work is for my Marvel Bingo square Bookstore
> 
> Title from Beatles song "With a Little Help From My Friends"

“Fine. I'll just find my own damned money to get my Computer Science doctorate. I know it's gonna be important. You just don't care because it isn't traditional enough. Well, I'll prove you wrong.” With that, Tony slammed the phone down, hard. At the sound, his roommate, James Rhodes, looked up from the engineering textbook he was reading.

“So, I take it he didn't take the idea well, Tones?”

“No. He did not 'take the idea well'. Don't worry, though, Rhodey. I'll figure out how to get the money for the doctorate. And I'll make it happen. I am going to have this before I go back to working for SI because I know it will help. Dad might not see it yet, but I do. Computers are the way of the future.”

“All right, Tony. I believe you. You know that’s why I'm minoring in Computer Science myself. Now, since we've got just a few months before you need to be ready to do this yourself, you get to learn how the Office of Financial Aid works. Lucky you, a graduate student counts as an independent student so your father's wealth won't matter to the government.” With that, James dragged his young roommate across campus to help make his desire for a doctorate a reality.

Tony was absolutely shocked at the number of forms he had to fill out, but was willing to complete every one. James pretended not to hear when each signature was accompanied with either a “You'll see, Howard” or a “Fuck you, Dad” that seemed to keep Tony motivated. The tiny almost eighteen year old still looked like the fifteen year old he had gotten as a roommate his freshman year, and had immediately taken under his wing. While James hadn't been able to prevent all of Tony's bad decisions, he figured he'd help prevent some of the worst excesses, since Tony wasn't lying in a ditch somewhere.

A few months passed, Tony worrying about whether he would be able to get the money to get his degree. James didn't want to think it, but he was glad Tony could see a little of how everyone else felt about money rather than having it all just appear for him. Still, he was thrilled when Tony's financial aid offer came through. Thing was, though, one of the parts of it was a TA work study. Tony had to go to the graduate coordinator to get the information so he could find a professor to take him on. James decided to go with Tony to see the coordinator's reaction to the idea of a small eighteen year old who looked even younger teaching undergraduate students.

He wasn't disappointed. Tony walked in, and said to the woman manning the desk, “I'm here about my graduate school teaching work study program.” The woman started to gather up papers before looking up, but when she did, the papers immediately dropped.

“You can't be old enough to be doing graduate work! You're not even old enough to be here!” James manfully swallowed back laughter as he noticed Tony looking both disconcerted by the comments about his age and happy to be treated as a normal student, not the Stark Heir.

“Ma'am, I assure you, I am doing my doctorate of Computer Science in the fall, assuming I get my financial aid all worked out.” Tony was clearly doing his best to sound grown up, though James had to turn away to hide the grin at the deliberate lowering of his voice Tony was doing to facilitate that.

“Well, I can't put you in charge of a bunch of graduate students. No matter how much you know, they won't listen. Let me see...” The woman began shuffling through her papers. “Ah yes! I can get you a job in the campus bookstore instead. It will pay the same, I'll do the paperwork to make sure, but it won't have you in charge of a bunch of undergrads. You just need to fill out all of these papers.” The woman held out a sheaf of papers with an imposing number of spots to fill in. “Just go sit over there and fill it out.” Then her face softened and James knew what was coming. It was the same face his mama got when she decided Tony needed some mothering. “Don't worry, dear. I'll make sure everything works out. You just fill that out, and your school will happen.” 

“C'mere, Tones. You've got this.” James dragged Tony towards a set of chairs with a low table and sat him down so that the paperwork could be filled out. He was seriously looking forward to seeing his roommate work in a bookstore. Given Tony had two modes, either hyperactively flitting from activity to activity, or hyperfocused on a single task, it would be interesting to see how he did working a normal job.

As James didn't want Tony to see him as overprotective, he waited until his second day on the job at the bookstore to visit him. James knew he was overprotective, which is what happens when you stick a young man with a strong sense of responsibility as the roommate of an underage genius who never got visitors and was yelled at every time he talked to anyone on the phone. Still, Tony didn't like it, so James did his best. This time, his best was giving one day.

As James walked into the campus bookstore, the excuse of buying his own books ready if Tony asked, he saw the genius being cooed over by a woman he remembered as being one of the permanent non-student workers at the store. “Hey, Tones, what's up!” James called, trying to distract the lady before Tony got frustrated and said something he'd regret.

“Oh, just getting ready for another day. Mrs. Wirtz here was explaining to me that since the customers were mean to me yesterday I'll be shelving books all day. Isn't she sweet?” Tony smiled that press smile he learned from his father, the one that only James could tell was fake. Tony must hate being condescended to the way she was.

“Thank you for looking after him, Mrs. Wirtz. Can I talk to him for a bit?” James gave the smile that had gotten him pie from the neighbors more than once when he growing up.

“Of course, sweetheart. We don't have any returns yet to shelve, but I'm sure we will soon.” With that, she walked away, and James saw Tony's fake smile drop.

“I hate this, Rhodey! It's so boring. I mean, there's all these books and everything, but so many of them are stupid, and all the people are stupid, too,” Tony complained.

“I know, Tones. You can do it, though. Remember, this means you can get that degree without your father. And I've got your back. Always.”

Tony smiled at James, letting James see, for once, the gratitude he had for everything he had done. “I know, Rhodeybear. I couldn't do this without you.”


End file.
